<p>Hello. I'm going into senior year in high school and have amassed a tentative list of colleges I'm applying to, which I'm planning to reduce as they are quite a few colleges on them. My general academic record, I feel, as been so-so. Here it is:</p>
<p>GPA (Unweighted 10-12)-3.50
GPA (UC GPA)-3.86
SAT-2100 (800 CR, 670 Math, 630 Writing), planning to retake in fall
SAT II-US History-800
Literature-790
APs: 5s on AP Euro and Human Geography, pending for AP English Language, US History, and Psych</p>
<p>Extra-curriculars-With MUN since freshman year, now Club President. Member of few other clubs but not very active. Part of Activities Committie at my church.</p>
<p>Volunteering-Volunteering during the summers at various public libraries. Need to check the exact number of hours I've amassed so far.</p>
<p>And here's the college list:</p>
<p>UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC Davis
UC San Diego
UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside
University of Michigan
Ohio State University
University of Illinois Urbana-Champlaign
University of Washington
Indiana University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Minnesota
Boston University
Brandeis University
New York University
Grinnell College
Gettysburg College</p>
<p>Which of these colleges in your mind should come off this list and thus reduce it to a more manageable size? For the record I'm a California residents (although U of Minn as a relatively low out of state tuition and U of Michigan seems to offer generous grants, I have to look into the others) and I'm planning to double-major in history/poli sci. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>Most of the OOS publics do not offer much in the way of aid to OOS students. You will probably not find Michigan to be affordable (I assume you need it to be given your comments). Also, Minnesota is raising OOS tuition next year, and may continue to do so in the next few years (so don’t count on it staying low). NYU’s reputation for FA isn’t good, either. If you haven’t, you should run the net price calculator on each school’s website. Do you know exactly what you can afford?</p>
<p>Also, Grinnell and Gettysburg seem to be real outliers (small liberal arts colleges) vs the rest of your list. Can you explain why you have a lot of larger universities and then those two? Have you looked at American in DC?</p>
<p>keep gettysburg and brandeis dump the rest
add muhlenberg college and butler university
problem solved</p>
<p>Have you run the net price calculators on each of the schools to see if they are affordable?</p>
<p>Very strange list! I think you need to decide if you would be comfortable in a huge environment or a very small environment like Grinnell. If you want to go with large, I’d stick with the CA schools since you are in state and they would meet your basic needs. Spend some more time thinking about what you really want out of a school and that should help you eliminate some of these.</p>
<p>I’ll need to run through the net price calculators for a lot of the colleges.</p>
<p>I’m basing my hopes of U of Michigan based on the sample aid packages offered here: [Office</a> of Financial Aid: Sample Aid Packages](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/TopNav/AboutUMFinancialAid/SampleAidPackages.aspx]Office”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/TopNav/AboutUMFinancialAid/SampleAidPackages.aspx)</p>
<p>I’ll probably drop the LACs first-they were mostly suggested to me by some friends and I prefer a large research university personally due to the diversity of classes and majors.</p>
<p>Odd to have colleges on your list that don’t appeal to you . . if you want large, go large and drop the LACs.</p>
<p>At U Mich a couple years ago 29% of students got merit aid averaging $6k each, and that includes athletes = U Michigan is not very generous. In the example pages you cite an OOS family earning $80-$100k had an EFC of only ~$13k and a grant of ~$16k which left the family to pay $36k net per year . . . or about what OSU charges before any aid is calculated. What is your family’s EFC?</p>
<p>OSU gave our DD1 a healthy (3/4 of the OOS) merit bump to go there from NE. It’s currently $36k all in w/o any aid.</p>
<p>Do you really want to go away for college to another state? Most students grow bets where they were planted . . .</p>
<p>U Wisconsin gave an average $17k to 1% of its applicants, but its all-in cost is $41k.</p>
<p>In addition to running those NPCs, you need to have a conversation with your parents so that you can find out just exactly how much they are ready, willing, and able to pay each year. If the NPCs clearly show that an institution is outside your family’s comfort zone, then drop it from your list and move on.</p>
<p>Re: [Office</a> of Financial Aid: Sample Aid Packages](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/TopNav/AboutUMFinancialAid/SampleAidPackages.aspx]Office”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/TopNav/AboutUMFinancialAid/SampleAidPackages.aspx)</p>
<p>Looks like, unless your family is very low income (the $20,000 family income scenario), the sample non-resident financial aid package at Michigan will have a lot more loans than most people would consider reasonable.</p>